Producers

Summary

New World wines are those wines produced
outside the traditional wine-growing areas of Europe and the Middle
East, in particular from
Argentina,
Australia,
Canada,
Chile, New
Zealand, South
Africa and the United
States.

Retailers

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Article

New World wines are those wines produced
outside the traditional wine-growing areas of Europe and the Middle
East, in particular from
Argentina,
Australia,
Canada,
Chile, New
Zealand, South
Africa and the United
States.

History

Early wines in the Americas

Alcoholic beverages were made by indigenous peoples of the
Americas
before the Age of
Discovery. Indigenous
peoples are known to have used maize,
potatoes, quinua,
pepper tree fruits and
strawberries to make alcoholic
beverages.^[1]^ Despite the existence of species
of the vitis genus (to which Vitis
vinifera belongs) in
Venezuela,
Colombia, Central
America and
Mexico indigenous peoples did not ferment these
species and therefore did not make wine.^[1]^

Spanish settlers in the Americas initially brought Old
World animals and plants to the Americas
for self-consumption in their attempt to reproduce the
diet "Diet (nutrition)") they had in Spain and
Europe.^[1]^ A further stimulus for the production
of New World wine in Spanish America might have been that European wines
exported to the Americas were in general not transported in bottles nor
sealed with cork "Cork (material)") which made
them prone to be sour.^[1]^

Attempts to grow vines in the Americas began in
Hispaniola during the second voyage of
Columbus
in 1494.^[2]^ Ferdinand II of
Aragon, King of
Spain, banned the planting of vines in Hispaniola in
1503.^[2]^ After the establishment of vines in
Hispaniola in early 16th century vineyards were successfully established
in Mexico in 1524.^[2]^ Hernán
Cortés, conqueror of
Mexico, promoted the establishment of vines and made it in 1524 a
requirement for Spanish settlers that wanted to acquire land in the
Mexican Plateau to establish
vineyards in their lands.^[2]^ The growing of
vines in Peru is known to have been ventured by Bartolomé de Terrazas
and Francisco de Carabantes in the 1540s.^[1]^ The
latter established vineyards in Ica
from where vines then were taken into Chile and
Argentina.^[1]^

The most common of the early grapes was a black grape called
Mission "Mission (grape)") (Spanish: Misión)
which was planted and Mexico and subsequently also in
California. Grapes of the same stock
were planted in Peru where it received the name Negra
peruana
(Peruvian black) and from this came the most common Chilean grape: the
País. This Chilean grape came to introduced in
what is now Argentina where it came to be known as Criolla
chica.^[1]^
These grapes are supposed to have originated from Spain but there is
also a possibility that they originated from Italy as they resemble very
much the variety Mónica "Monica (grape)") grown
in Sardinia as well as
Spain.^[1]^

In the second half of the 16th century, the demand for wine among
Spanish settlers caused a surge in Spanish wine exports to Mexico and
Cuba. However, this was not the case for
Peru, Chile, and
Argentina, where cultivation of vineyards
had proven to be a success and, thus, required fewer imports of Spanish
wines.^[1]^ Relative to Peru and Chile, Spanish
settlers in the Mexico established only very
few vineyards.^[3]^

In the 16th and 17th century the principal wine growing area of the
Americas was in the central and southern coast of
Peru.^[4]^ In Peru the largest wine-making
centre was in the area of Ica and
Pisco.^[4]^
Apart from Peru and Chile Paraguay
developed despite its high temperatures into a wine-making area in the
16th century. Hernando Arias de
Saavedra
who visited the city of Asunción in
1602 said there was 187 vineyards totalling 1.768.000 individual
plants.^[4]^ Other sources cite 2.000.000 and
1.778.000 plants around the same time.^[4]^
Paraguayan wine was exported downstream to Santa
Fe and from there to
the Platine
market.^[5]^
Paraguayan wine is also known to have reached
Córdoba in central
Argentina.^[5]^

Changes in the Americas and opening of South Africa

Mining activity in Potosí created a huge
demand for wine in 17th century South America. Drawing by Pedro Cieza
de León from
1553.

Vineyard in Stellenbosch, South
Africa

In 1595 the Spanish Crown banned the establishment of new vineyards in
the Americas, but this order was
largely ignored.^[4]^ The ban sought to protect
Iberian wine from
competition "Competition (economics)")
by Peruvian wine and can be considered an example of
commodity
mercantilism.^[2]^
Moreover the Spanish Crown banned the export of Peruvian wine to
Panamá and
Guatemala in 1614 and 1615
respectively.^[4]^ The enforcement of the
restrictions on wine growth and trade in the Spanish Empire was in
general lax.^[2]^ The only market in the
Americas the Spanish Crown managed —to some degree— to secure for
Iberian wine was Mexico.^[1]^

The growth of mining in Potosí in
present-day Bolivia, which became the largest
city in the Americas in the 17th century, created a constant demand for
wine which was supplied mainly from Peru.^[5]^
In Potosí part of salaries were paid with
wine.^[5]^ Furthermore Peruvian wine growers
supplied the city of Lima, the most important
political centre in South America in the 16th and 17th
centuries.^[5]^ In Chile wine demand was
guaranteed by the Army of Arauco, a
permanent army financed with silver from
Potosí which fought native
Mapuches.^[5]^ In the
view that Parauguayan wine could not compete in these three markets
Paraguayans abandoned wine growing and sought instead income from
tobacco and yerba
mate
exports.^[5]^ In the 18th century practically no
wine-growing occurred in Paraguay.^[5]^

In 1687 the whole southern coast of Peru was struck by the 1687 Peru
earthquake which
destroyed the cities of Villa de
Pisco and
Ica.^[6]^ The earthquake destroyed wine
cellars and mud containers used for
wine storage.^[5]^ This event marked the end of
the Peruvian wine-boom.^[6]^ The suppression of
the Society of
Jesus
in Spanish America in 1767 caused the Jesuit vineyards in Peru to be
auctioned at high prices but new owners did
not had the same expertise as the jesuits contributing to a production
decline.^[5]^ Peruvian wine-making was further
challenged by the fact that production of pisco,
also made from grapes, rose from being exceed in the early 18th century
by wine to represent 90% of the grape beverages prepared in Peru in
1764.^[5]^ Even after the shift to pisco making
did vineyards in Peru encountered economic troubles since in the late
18th century the Spanish Crown lifted the ban on the production of
rum in Peru which was cheaper and but of lower
quality than
pisco.^[4]^^[5]^

The decline of Peruvian wine even caused Peru to import some wine from
Chile as it happened in 1795 when Lima imported 5.000 troves (Spanish:
botijas) from
Concepción in
southern Chile.^[5]^^[7]^
This particular export showed the emergence of Chile relative to Peru as
a wine-making region.^[5]^ Eduard Friedrich
Poeppig
claimed as some other did before him that the wine from Concepción were
the bests of Chile, this was likely due the less arid climate of
southern
Chile.^[7]^

The New World imported wine from the early days of European
colonisation, particularly for religious purposes. Perhaps the first
significant example of the trade going the other way was
Constantia "Constantia (wine)") from South
Africa, which by the
18th century had become a firm favourite among European
royalty.^[8]^^[9]^

New World wines in the Industrial Age

Vine cuttings from the Cape of Good
Hope were brought to the
penal colony of New South
Wales by Governor
Phillip on the First
Fleet
(1788).^[10]^ An attempt at wine making from
these first vines failed, but with perseverance, other settlers managed
to successfully cultivate vines for
winemaking, and Australian made wine
was available for sale domestically by the 1820s.^[11]^
In 1822 Gregory Blaxland
became the first person to export Australian wine, and was the first
winemaker to win an overseas award.^[12]^ In 1830
vineyards were established in the Hunter
Valley.^[10]^ In 1833 James
Busby returned from France and Spain
with a serious selection of grape varieties including most classic
French grapes and a good selection of grapes for fortified wine
production.^[10]^ Wine from the Adelaide Hills
was sent to Queen Victoria in
1844, but there is no evidence that she placed an order as a result. The
production and quality of Australian wine was much improved by the
arrival of free settlers from various parts of Europe, who used their
skills and knowledge to establish some of Australia's premier wine
regions. For example, emigrants from Prussia
in the mid-1850s were important in establishing South
Australia's "South Australia (wine)")
Barossa Valley "Barossa Valley (wine)") as
a winemaking
region.^[citation\ needed]^

Early Australian winemakers faced many difficulties, particularly due to
the unfamiliar Australian climate. However they eventually achieved
considerable success. "At the 1873 Vienna Exhibition the French judges,
tasting blind, praised some wines from Victoria, but withdrew in protest
when the provenance of the wine was
revealed, on the grounds that wines of that quality must clearly be
French."^[13]^ Australian wines continued to win
high honours in French competitions. A Victorian
Syrah (also called Shiraz) competing in the 1878
Paris Exhibition was likened to Château
Margaux and "its taste
completed its trinity of perfection."^[13]^ One
Australian wine won a gold medal "first class" at the 1882 Bordeaux
International Exhibition and another won a gold medal "against the
world" at the 1889 Paris International
Exhibition.^[13]^

Chilean wine begun to modernize in 1851 when Sylvestre
Ochagavia
imported cuttings of French
varieties.^[14]^ Sylvestre Ochagavia is
credited with introducing the varieaties Cabernet
Sauvignon, Pinot
noir, Cot,
Merlot, Semillon
and Riesling into
Chile.^[14]^ Other wealthy wine growers
followed suite. By the 1870s the wine industry was the most developed
area of Chilean agriculture.^[14]^

Vineyards and winery in Médanos, Buenos Aires, Argentina

The region of Mendoza, or
historically Cuyo "Cuyo (Argentina)"),
experienced an unprecedented wine-boom in the 19th century and early
20th century which turned it into the fifth wine growing area of the
world and the first in Latin America.^[5]^ The
establishment of the Buenos Aires-Mendoza
railroad
in 1885 ended the lengthy and costly trade with
carts that connected these two regions of Argentina
and sparked development of vineyards in
Mendoza.^[5]^ Furthermore massive
immigration
to Río de La Plata
mainly from Southern Europe
increased demand and bought know-how to the old-fashioned Argentine wine
industry.^[5]^ The vineyards of Mendoza totalled
1.000 ha in 1830 but grew to 45.000 in 1910,
surpassing Chile which had during the 19th century had a larger areas
planted with vines and a more modern
industry.^[5]^ By 1910 around 80% of the area of
Argentine vineyards were planted with French stock, mainly
Malbec.^[5]^

During the 19th Peruvian wine-making went further into decline. Demand
in industrialized Europe caused many Peruvian winegrowers to shift the
land use from vineyards to lucrative cotton fields, contributing further
to the decline of the wine and pisco
industry.^[6]^ This was particularly true during
the time of the American Civil
War (1861–1865) when the
cotton prices skyrocketed due to the Blockade of the
South and its cotton
fields.^[5]^ Also in South Africa did wine
making suffer a stunning blow in the 1860s with the implementation of
the Cobden–Chevalier
Treaty
in 1860 that forced South African wines to compete with French wines in
Britain and resulted a doubling of French wine imports to
Britain.^[15]^ South African vineyards also suffered a
second setback after the arrival of the
Phylloxera plague in the
1880s.^[16]^

20th century

Chilean wine exports to Argentina were hampered by the lack of effective
land transport and a series of war scares. This situation changed after
the Pactos de Mayo were signed
in 1902 and the inauguration of the Transandine
Railway in 1909,
making war unlikely and trade across the Andes easy. Governments agreed
to sign a free trade agreement. Argentine winegrowers association,
Centro Vitivinícola
Nacional,
dominated by European immigrants protested vigorously against the free
trade agreement since Chilean wines were considered a threat to the
local industry. The complaints of Argentine wine growers in conjunction
with that of cattle farmers in Chile ended up tearing down the plans for
a free trade agreement.^[17]^

Characteristics of New World wines

Style

Since New World vineyards are generally in hotter climates than those of
Northern Europe - in fact some major New World regions are irrigated
desert - New World grapes tend to be
riper "Riper (wine)").^[citation\ needed]^
Thus New World wines tend to be correspondingly more alcoholic and
full-bodied. Critics such as Robert M. Parker,
Jr. have
influenced New World producers and consumers towards a fruitier style,
with more use of new oak. However in recent years there has been a
reaction against some of the very oaky, alcoholic styles that typified
late 1980s Australian Chardonnays for
example,^[citation\ needed]^
as cooler vineyards have been identified and winemakers have become more
sophisticated and more restrained.

Varietal labelling

Varietal wines from Montana of
New Zealand.

Traditionally New World wine used names of well-known European regions,
such as Burgundy, Champagne. Sherry, Port, and Hock. This gave consumers
a general idea of how the wine might taste. This changed as winemakers
developed the confidence to develop their own styles of wine such as
Grange. Europeans producers objected to the use of their regional names,
and writers such as Frank
Schoonmaker in the US
encouraged the use of varietal names as
used on Alsace wine. One reason was
that unlike Europe, there was no history of particular localities being
associated with particular styles of wine, and winemakers might buy in
grapes from many sources. Indeed wines such as Grange specifically
ignored the origin of the grapes in order to achieve a more consistent
style. So led by winemakers such as Robert
Mondavi,
varietal labelling became common during the
1960s and 1970s, and has since spread to most of Eastern Europe and much
of Western Europe.

Subsequently New World winemakers have 'rediscovered' the art of
blending wines, with blends such as
Shiraz/Cabernet
Sauvignon,
Semillon/Sauvignon
blanc and the Rhone
combination of Grenache,
Shiraz and
Mourvedre
("GSM "GSM (wine)")") all becoming more common. And
as New World viticulturists have better understood the soils and
climates of their vineyards, terroir has come
to the New World, with the 'terra rossa' of
Coonawarra known for its Cabernet
Sauvignons, and the
Eden
Valley
and Clare Valley and Chile's
Bío-Bío Valley for
Riesling.

Marketing

Being less dependent on geography, New World wines have placed more
emphasis on branding as a marketing tool, following the example set by
Germany's Blue Nun and Portugal's Mateus
Rosé "Mateus (wine brand)"), brands created
in 1927 and in 1942 respectively. One particular style of branding has
been the 'critter wines' that use animals on their labels. Without the
partible
inheritance of the
Napoleonic code to worry
about, New World vineyards tend to be very much bigger than those in
Burgundy for example, which has allowed economies of scale and a better
ability to negotiate with mass market retailers. With supermarkets
selling an increasing proportion of wine in many markets, New World
producers are better positioned to take advantage of this trend towards
high volumes and low margins.

Ownership

The greater size of New World wine companies has made them attractive
targets for multinational drinks companies seeking to exploit the trend
towards drinking wine rather than beer or spirits. Thus, the Foster's
Group bought up both Beringer
Blass (a holding company for
Wolf Blass, Mildara Wines and many others) and Southcorp
Wines (holding company for
Penfolds, Lindemans, Wynns and many
others). Pernod-Ricard have bought Montana
Wines,
Diageo own Blossom Hill, and Constellation
Brands have a
portfolio that span the New World, from Ravenswood and Vincor to Nobilo
and Hardys.

Wine-making countries

Argentina

Main article: Argentine wine

Tapiz Winery in Agrelo, Mendoza

Argentina is the worlds fifth biggest wine
producer^[18]^ though it has traditionally
had a high domestic consumption (in 2006, Argentines averaged over 40
litres per capita in one year). It has a long tradition of winemaking
under the Spanish, going back to 1557, but the industry has been
influenced by more recent immigrants, notably Italians and also Germans.
Exports increased during the mid-1990s following the success of their
neighbours in Chile, and accelerated after the economic
crisis "Argentine economic crisis (1999-2002)")
of 2002.

The long history of viticulture in Argentina has brought forth the
evolution of many local varieties, but perhaps the most typically
Argentine grape is the Torrontés,
which makes an aromatic white wine. However, Argentines love red wine to
go with their famous steaks. Malbec has proven
to be the most successful variety in export markets, with
Barbera and
"Bonarda" (now known to be Corbeau, a
minor variety from Savoie) being blended into
more affordable wines.

The Mendoza
Province "Mendoza Province (wine)"),
which is Argentina's main producer, has also gained recognition from the
wine tourism business due to
important investments in new wineries and hotel accommodations. Other
producing areas include San
Juan "San Juan Province (Argentina)"),
Salta, La
Rioja "La Rioja Province (Argentina)"),
Catamarca, Rio
Negro and the
Buenos Aires wine
region.

Australia

Main article: Australian wine

Australian wine areas

Vine cuttings from South Africa were brought on the First
Fleet (1788), and though the settlers
took a while to get to grips with the new conditions, wine exports began
in 1822. As mentioned above, by the 1880s Australian wines were winning
prizes in Europe, but then phylloxera struck and the industry subsided
into producing fortified wines for the domestic market. Grange and
others led the revival of interest in table wines, which culminated in
2000, when Australia sold more wine to the United Kingdom than did
France.

While early Australian wines, their Chardonnays in particular, were
criticized for being over-oaked and over-ripe, Australian winemaking is
now some of the most sophisticated in the world, with vineyards
increasingly planted in cooler climates, such as Pinot
noir in
Tasmania "Tasmania (wine)"), and unoaked
wines becoming popular. Several
regional specialities have emerged, notably
Shiraz in the Barossa
Valley "Barossa Valley (wine)"), Cabernet
Sauvignon in
Coonawarra,
Riesling in the Eden
Valley
and Clare Valley, and Hunter
Valley
Sémillon.
Rutherglen
Muscats "Muscat (grape and wine)") are
perhaps the finest fortified
wines of the New World.

Canada

Main article: Canadian wine

Vineyards near Lake Okanagan in
British Columbia

Canada followed a similar path to the eastern United States - early
attempts to grow Vitis
vinifera failed, leading to a
significant export industry based on Vitis
labrusca and Vitis
riparia, fortified to disguise
the 'foxy' aromas. The country had its own version of
Prohibition until 1927, and after it
ended red tape inhibited the industry until 1974. In the following years
improved viticulture and grape varieties allowed a substantial expansion
of the industry in the 1990s, centered around the parts of Southern
Ontario warmed by the Great
Lakes, and in the Okanagan
Valley "Okanagan Valley (wine)") of
southern British Columbia.
While there has been some progress with red wines from the Bordeaux
varieties and Pinot noir, Canada's most
successful wines are ice wines made from
grapes such as Riesling,
Vidal, and even Cabernet
Franc.

Chile

Main article: Chilean wine

Many of Chile's vineyards are found on flat land within the foothills of
the Andes.

As in Argentina, Chilean viticulture dates back to the
Conquistadores. The Bordeaux
varieties arrived in the mid-19th century, although for a long time many
of the vines thought to be Merlot were in fact
Carmenère, and the latter has become
something of a signature grape. It is the tenth biggest producer of wine
in the world; traditionally quantity was favored over quality, and red
tape discouraged improvement. Under the Pinochet reforms of the 1980s,
investments were made in wineries and vineyards, and exports began in
earnest in the mid-1990s.^[19]^ Traditionally Chilean
vineyards were in semi-arid areas
irrigated "Irrigated (wine)") by water from the
Andes, but there has been increasing interest in cooler areas such as
the Lleyda Valley (becoming known for its Pinot
noir) and the Bío-Bío
Valley, which suits
Riesling and
Gewurztraminer.

Chile is notable for being one of the few vine-growing regions to be
free of phylloxera.\

Mexico

Main article: Mexican wine

Grapes during pigmentation in Baja
California, Mexico.

Mexico is the oldest wine-making
region in the Americas.

In 1549, Spanish explorers and settlers came across a fertile valley in
the present-day state of Coahuila where
they encountered native vines and founded the Mission of Santa María de
las Parras or "Holy Mary of the Vines". In 1597, the Hacienda de San
Lorenzo was established by the Spanish settler Don Lorenzo García, where
he founded, along with other Spanish missionaries, Casa
Madero

the oldest winery house in the Americas.

Many of the vines from Parras de la
Fuente,
Coahuila and other places in Mexico were
the first to be exported and cultivated in what is now
California, as well as other provinces
in Northern New Spain and other Spanish
colonies in South America. In 1699, the King of Spain- alarmed by
competition from the New World- prohibited wine production in New Spain,
with the exception of wines for the church. The prohibition lasted until
the Mexico's independence from Spain in 1810.

As of the 2013, about 90% of Mexican wine is produced in the
northwestern state of Baja
California, neighboring the
wine producing region of California in the U.S., particularly in the
Valley of
Guadalupe,
Ensenada
Municipality.

New Zealand

Main article: New Zealand
wine

New Zealand viticulture was started in a small way by
Croatian immigrants at the end of
the 19th century, but it was not until the 1970s that it really got
going. Several factors came together at that time - Britain's entry into
the European Economic
Community
in 1973 ended favorable terms of agricultural trade, whilst New
Zealanders themselves developed a taste for wine as local drinking laws
changed and cheap air travel exposed them to different cultures.

Various grapes were tried in the early years, but it was in the 1980s
that New Zealand developed the pungent style of Sauvignon
blanc that became her
trademark. Since then the Burgundy grapes of
Chardonnay and Pinot
noir have been developed in cooler, more
southerly vineyards, with considerable success. More recently there has
been a fad for the 'aromatic' white varieties such as
Gewurztraminer and
Riesling, with even
Auslese styles being attempted.

Peru

Main article: Peruvian wine

The first grapevines were brought to
Peru shortly after its conquest by
Spain. Spanish
chroniclers from the time note that the
first vinification in South America
took place in the hacienda Marcahuasi of
Cuzco.^[20]^ However, the
largest and most prominent vineyards of the 16th and 17th century
Americas were established in the Ica
valley of south-central Peru.^[21]^ In the 1540s,
Bartolomé de Terrazas and Francisco de Carabantes began vineyards in
Peru.^[1]^ The latter established vineyards in
Ica, which Spaniards from Andalucia and
Extremadura used to introduce
grapevines into
Chile.^[1]^^[22]^

In 1687 the whole southern coast of Peru was struck by the 1687 Peru
earthquake which
destroyed the cities of Villa de
Pisco and
Ica.^[6]^ The
earthquake destroyed wine cellars and
mud containers used for wine storage.^[5]^ This
event marked the end of the Peruvian
wine-boom.^[6]^

In 2008, there were some 14,000 hectares (35,000 acres) of grape
plantations in Peru, including table
grapes, and some 610,000 hectolitres
(13,000,000 imp gal; 16,000,000 US gal) of wine was produced, with an
increasing trend in both plantations and wine
production.^[23]^ Most vineyards are located on the
central coast, around Pisco and
Ica, where most of Peru's winemaking and
distillation takes place.^[24]^

South Africa

Main article: South African
wine

Wine was first e from Muscat de Frontignan (Muscat Blanc à Petits
Grains),
was popular among European royalty. However the vineyards were decimated
by phylloxera and the
KWV cooperative that ran most of the industry under
apartheid gave little encouragement to produce quality wine. The end of
apartheid sparked a wave of investment and innovation in the vineyards
of the Cape, although there remains large areas of undistinguished grape
varieties such as Colombard.
Stellenbosch and
Paarl can produce world-class wines from the
Bordeaux varieties, Shiraz and also from
Pinotage, a variety bred locally from
Pinot noir and
Cinsaut. South Africa is also the second home
of Chenin blanc, known as Steen;
Muscat Blanc à Petits
Grains
is known locally as red and white Muscadel, and is once again being used
to make Constantia.

United States

Main article: American wine

Although wine is made throughout the United States, 90% of it comes from
California. The Gallo Winery
runs an industrial facility in Modesto, California that produces the
majority of the state's wine exports. Most of the rest is split between
Washington state and New
York state, followed by
Oregon. California's earliest grape
vines were imported from New Spain, or
Mexico, which in turn were brought by Spanish
explorers and settlers. North America has several native species of
Vitis, from which wine has been made for a long
time in the east of the country, although the 'foxy' aromas of wines
produced from these species are not to everyone's taste. The
Catawba "Catawba (grape)") variety led the way
for winemaking from native species, first in Ohio and later in the
Finger Lakes area of New York
state. California followed a
similar path to Latin American countries, with Spanish missionaries
starting the first vineyard of vinifera vines in 1769, and later
immigrants from Bordeaux and Italy bringing their native grapes with
them. Soon a thriving industry developed, particularly in the Napa
Valley, which was stopped in
its tracks by phylloxera and, uniquely,
Prohibition
(1920–1933).

One interesting consequence of Prohibition was that vineyards were
replanted with lower quality grapes such as Alicante
Bouschet that could
survive transportation to home winemakers, and this tradition of home
winemaking changed taste preferences from a dry style before Prohibition
to a much sweeter style. In general Prohibition had a devastating effect
on commercial winemaking in the country, which only started to recover
in the late 1960s and 1970s under major industry pioneers such as
Ernest and Julio
Gallo, Robert
Mondavi and the world-class
viticultural scientists at the University of California,
Davis.
The latter institution has played a leading role in the recovery of wine
in the United States, in particular identifying just what vines were
actually planted (notably California's signature grape, the robust red
Zinfandel, which was found to be
Croatia's Crljenak Kaštelanski), and encouraging the use of better
clones of the traditional European varieties. In the 1970s, geographical
appellations were designated as
American Viticultural
Areas.

In the years after Prohibition, the domestic market demanded cheap 'jug
wines' and sweet fortified wines. These tastes led to local styles such
as White Zinfandel (a sweet
rosé) and "bum
wines". Interest in traditional European
varieties increased after Mondavi reinvented Sauvignon
blanc in a dry, heavily oaked
style called Fumé Blanc, leading
to the innovations that triumphed so spectacularly in Paris in 1976.
While California is known for its Cabernet
Sauvignon,
Zinfandel and
Chardonnay in particular, it produces
such a massive amount of wine that just about every grape variety ends
up being grown there to a greater or lesser extent. For instance, the
"Rhone Rangers" have raised awareness of the Rhone varieties, notably
Viognier, and there has been speculation
that climate change will force California to look further south in
Europe for grape varieties. The Northwest states of Oregon and
Washington are known for their Pinot
noirs, and rieslings while New York
state continues to produce wine mostly from Vitis
labrusca varieties and hybrids.